On June 22, 2009, Eastman Kodak Company announced that it would no longer manufacture the iconic photography product, KODACHROME Color Film.

Best known for its longevity and color accuracy, the KODACHROME Color Film are popular in archival and professional markets. Kodak attributed the reasons behind the decision to steadily declining sales caused by newer Kodak films and digital imaging technologies. Many had predicted the coming of this day long time ago. Nevertheless, many fans felt lost when the news broke. Perhaps there are still enough KODACHROME films around and most importantly, KODACHROME film processing business running, so people can celebrate the 75th anniversary of the iconic film that captured many well known iconic images.

To many, the tangibility of films and the intangibility of digital photos are the reason they are try to hang on to the film. For many others who have given up the film or never really got into the film photography, it is import to understand that tangibility does not equal to longevity. With proper management of your digital photos, or other digital assets, they can last longer than film and other traditional analog media with zero loss of quality.

Digital asset management (DAM) is a lot more than just backing up your files regularly. It involves complex tasks and decisions surrounding ingesting, annotating, cataloging, storage and retrieval of digital assets, such as digital photographs, animations, videos and music [Wikipedia]. Fortunately for digital photographers, you don’t need to figure this out on your own. There is an excellent book on this subject by Peter Krogh. The DAM Book: Digital Asset Management For Photographers, 2nd ED, published by O’Reilly Media, Inc, will help you establish the best practices for managing your digital photos.